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  3. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
  4. November 2014
  5. The Control Premium: A Preference for Payoff Autonomy

The Control Premium: A Preference for Payoff Autonomy

  • David Owens
  • Zachary Grossman
  • Ryan Fackler
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
vol. 6, no. 4, November 2014
(pp. 138-61)
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Abstract

We document individuals' willingness to pay to control their own payoff. Experiment participants choose whether to bet on themselves or on a partner answering a quiz question correctly. Given participants' beliefs, which we elicit separately, expected-money maximizers would bet on themselves in 56.4 percent of the decisions. However, participants actually bet on themselves in 64.9 percent of their opportunities, reflecting an aggregate control premium. The average participant is willing to sacrifice 8 percent to 15 percent of expected asset-earnings to retain control. Thus, agents may incur costs to avoid delegating and studies inferring beliefs from choices may overestimate their results on overconfidence.

Citation

Owens, David, Zachary Grossman, and Ryan Fackler. 2014. "The Control Premium: A Preference for Payoff Autonomy." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 6 (4): 138-61. DOI: 10.1257/mic.6.4.138

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • C91 Design of Experiments: Laboratory, Individual
  • D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
  • D82 Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
  • D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
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